Net migration falls by a third

Net migration to the UK has fallen by a third, figures showed, as the number
of migrants coming to the country fell to its lowest in a decade.

By Wesley Johnson, Home Affairs Correspondent

10:52AM GMT 28 Feb 2013

The number of people heading to Britain, less the number leaving, dropped significantly by 84,000 to 163,000 in the year to June, fuelled by a 17% drop in the number of foreign students arriving.

Immigration to the UK fell from 589,000 to 515,000, its lowest since 2003, official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May have pledged to reduce net migration to below 100,000 before the next election in 2015 and have brought in a number of measures to crack down on bogus students.

Mark Harper, the Immigration Minister, said: “We are bringing immigration back under control.

“Today’s statistics show another significant fall in net migration - down almost a third since June 2010 – and the latest visa statistics indicate that this trend is set to continue.

“Our tough reforms are having an impact in all the right places – we have tightened the routes where abuse was rife and overall numbers are down as a result.

“But sponsored student visa applications for our world-class university sector are up and the numbers of skilled people being sponsored by UK employers in sectors such as IT and science have also increased.

“We will continue to work hard to bring net migration down from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament and to create a selective immigration system that works in our national interest.”

Net migration has been falling constantly in recent months and was down 20,000 in June last year from the previous quarter.

Study remains the most common reason for migrating to the UK, but the numbers fell to 197,000 from 239,000 the previous year.

The fall in net migration was also driven by a significant decrease in the number of immigrants arriving from New Commonwealth countries, which includes African countries such as Botswana, Kenya and Malawi and Indian subcontinent countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

Some 117,000 immigrants from New Commonwealth countries arrived in the UK in the year to June, down 30% or 51,000 from 168,000 in the previous year.

Immigration from Poland and other new EU countries also fell, from 86,000 the previous year to 62,000 - the lowest level since they joined the EU in 2004.